Solid-state light emitters, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes, have several advantages over using more traditional arc lamps during curing processes, such as ultraviolet (UV) curing processes. Solid-state light emitters generally use less power, generate less heat, produce a higher quality cure, and have higher reliability than the traditional arc lamps. Some modifications increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the solid-state light emitters even further.
While solid-state light emitters emit less heat than their arc lamp counterparts, the temperatures emitted from the solid-state light emitters are still very high and can cause overheating of the solid-state light emitters during use and damage to the components of the solid-state light emitters over time. Overheating and damage to the components of the solid-state light emitters causes significant amounts of downtime for repair and loss of revenue.
Some solid-state light emitters try to incorporate cooling systems to remove some of the heat that is generated when the solid-state light emitter emits light. Oftentimes, these cooling systems include ventilation systems that have air intake and/or air exhaust openings positioned near the window through which light is emitted from the solid-state light emitter. This configuration positions the ventilation openings and causes air movement near the item(s) being cured. When ink is being cured on a medium, for example, this air movement disturbs the ink curing process and decreases the precision of positioning ink on the medium. These cooling systems tend to require large perimeters of space around the solid-state light emitters and prevent multiple solid-state light emitters from being stacked next to each other or on top of each other. Because of the ventilation challenges and the space restrictions for the solid-state light emitters, the light curing process is sometimes inefficient and expensive.
Most current solid-state light emitters do not address the ventilation challenges and the space restrictions of the current cooling systems and result in expensive and inefficient curing processes.